


Romantic Getaway

by Roxiepluto



Series: Jyoumi Week 2018 [3]
Category: Digimon Adventure, Digimon Adventure Zero Two | Digimon Adventure 02, Digimon Adventure tri.
Genre: F/M, Hawaii, Prompt - Vacation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-06-15 12:56:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15413397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roxiepluto/pseuds/Roxiepluto
Summary: “He wants to make everything perfect for you.”“But I don’t need perfect Gomamon.” She ran a hand through her hair and grasped the ends in frustration, “I just want him to be happy.”A vacation in Hawaii is the perfect time to chill out. Or it would be, if her boyfriend wasn't getting more stressed than usual.





	Romantic Getaway

“Where is the taxi? It was meant to be here half an hour ago?”

Joe turned back to make another loop from where he was pacing back and forth between the sign for the bus stop and the small pile of suitcases that Mimi had built and was now sitting on as she watched her beloved boyfriend run a hand through his hair, messing what had previously been a relatively decent attempt to groom it after their long flight.

“Joe. You need to chill out already.” Gomamon had originally paced with Joe in an effort to try and keep his partner happy, throwing in wisecracks and puns but it was clear that Joe wasn’t going to allow himself to be comforted about this.

Mimi sat and stared at Joe, knowing that something was off about this particular stress out. Normally he would chill out after she or Gomamon talked him down but neither of their words in the past twenty minutes had made any difference and he continued to pace and stress.

She had been with him long enough now to know that when he got like this, there was only so much she could do to comfort him. Sometimes she just had to let him get it out of his system.

She did wonder what was causing his unusually increased stress through.

Mimi stretched and allowed herself to flop back against her suitcase as she stared up at the crystal blue skies through the palm trees currently shading them. Whatever was stressing him out would get cured by being there, no doubt. Hawaii was the favourite holiday destination of people all over the world for it’s ability to cater to everyone and she was sure Joe wouldn’t be immune to it’s charms. That’s why he had suggested this place for their holiday this year; because he knew how much she loved coming here.

It was her second favourite place, after the digital world. She paused for a moment and gave a soft smile. Maybe her third favourite. Joe’s arms would always be her favourite place.

“Aloha! Sorry I’m late!”

Mimi sat up and smiled at the sight of the white taxi pulling up at the curb beside them, it’s driver waving happily out the window at them.

“Thank goodness; my leaves were starting to wilt,” mumbled Palmon from where she was sitting in the shadiest spot amongst the suitcases. Mimi looked down at her partner and gave her a reassuring smile.

“Sorry Palmon, they’ve got air conditioning at the hotel,” apologized Joe from where he had come over to pick up a suitcase, looked markedly calmer now that the taxi was here, though still moderately unhappy.

Mimi opened her mouth to ask what was wrong but Gomamon beat her as he gleefully added, “There’s a pool too, right?”

“We’re right by the sea Gomamon, why do you want a pool?” he replied, his forehead flattening out as his frown slowly drifted into a small smile.

Mimi closed her mouth; if Joe was feeling better then she wouldn’t bring it up. She wanted him to have the best vacation ever. With a grin she jumped up from her seat on the suitcases and ran full speed at Joe.

He only had a brief moment to blink before she threw herself at him and with expertise that she thanked him for every time, he immediately dropped the bags, quickly catching her in his arms. Her favourite place to be.

“You know one day I won’t have time to drop whatever I’m holding to catch you?” he asked with a small sigh, his fingers curling gently around her knees.

She grinned and leaned forward, her arms circling his neck to pull him closer to her as she whispered, “I know you’ll always catch me. You’re too reliable not to.”

She took great pride in the way his cheeks seemed to flush slightly with her words and leaned in the extra centimeter to press her lips gently against his. He was hesitant for a moment; he always was, as though he couldn’t believe the kiss was really happening, before his grip tightened on her and he made sure it was another kiss she would never forget.

Mimi was lost in the kiss until they heard someone rustling near them. They allowed themselves to part and turned to see the taxi guy moving the suitcases into the vehicle. He paused when he saw them looking and grinned. “Hey, don’t let me stop you.”

Mimi couldn’t help but giggle and put up no resistance when Joe lowered her gently back to the floor, despite the pout she put on her face.

Joe smiled warmly at her, “Don’t make that face; we’ll have time to cuddle later. We’ve got a schedule to keep.”

“Wha…” she replied before Joe broke off from her with a grin and grabbed some more of her suitcases to load into the car, not noticing as she mumbled, “But there are no schedules on holiday…”

\--

“So, where are we going?” asked Mimi as the four of them marched down the street, following Joe’s speedy pace, leaving her and their Digimon to try and keep up as they dodged round all of their fellow tourists.

“It’s a surprise,” he replied, turning his head slightly to acknowledge he’d heard her before turning left along the street corner.

“Aww,” she replied, giving her best pleading voice, “But I want to know…”

“Nope,” he replied, popping the P as he always did when he felt excited, “I’ve planned this trip to be perfect and full of surprises”

Knowing that he was that excited she gave the back of his head a fond smile; it was true that Joe hadn’t let her do any of the planning apart from the agreement on a date. He’d insisted on doing everything himself, so she didn’t have to worry. She’d just have to wait and see what Joe had up his sleeve.

After a few minutes, Joe seemed to stop dead where he was, allowing Mimi, Palmon and Gomamon to finally catch up with him. She turned to look at him and felt her heart drop at the look on his face. He looked devastated. She turned to see what had upset him so much, ready to punch someone for upsetting the one she loved so much but the fight drained out of her when all she could see was a giant queue that stretched out of a salon. Why would a queue devastate him so….oh.

She turned to him and gently reached out to touch his arm, “This was the surprise…wasn’t it?”

“This was meant to be the quiet time of day…” he whispered, “That was what the website said…”

“Dude! This is the quiet time!” exclaimed a guy walking past, his accent making it clear he was a local.

“What…but…how long would it take in this queue?” he exclaimed, turning to face the guy with such intensity that the guy nearly took a step back.

“Uh…” the local glanced at the queue before turning back and replying, “Probably two hours or so.”

“Two hours?!” exclaimed Palmon, wilting by Mimi’s feet to sit on the floor, “It’s too hot to stay in the sun for ten minutes, let alone two hours!”

“Palmon!” hissed Mimi quietly, all too aware of how quickly Joe seemed to be falling into despair, “It’s fine.”

“No,” insisted Joe quietly, his frustration evidently giving way to resigned sadness, “We can’t wait two hours or we’re going to miss the next activity.”

The local looked between them for a moment, obviously sensing the tone of the moment and suddenly got a smile on his face, holding up a finger as he exclaimed, “I know! There’s a guy near here who gives great foot massages, but most people pass him for the salons even though he’s great so there’s never a long wait. I can take you to him if you like?”

Joe gave Mimi a sideways glance, his eyebrows drawn in a way that she realized he was trying to work out if that was a good enough substitute for what he had originally planned.

“Oh hun,” she soothed, her hand squeezing his arm gently, “I’m happy anywhere as long as I’m with you.”

It was true. She would have loved to go to a fancy spa; being pampered in a high-end salon was one of her favourite activities after all. But Joe was more important to her than every fancy spa in the world combined.

“Let’s get out of here already,” complained Gomamon with a whine, “My feet are starting to melt to the pavement.”

Joe’s resolve seemed to harden, and he nodded before turning back to the local who was surprisingly still waiting, a look of mild amusement on his face. “If you wouldn’t mind, that would be very kind of you.”

\--

Joe heaved a big sigh of contentment and Mimi smiled from where she was sat next to him whilst he was having his foot massage. He had insisted she go first and she was happy to say the local was right; this guy’s foot massages were on point. It felt like she was floating on air now.

He worked in a good place too; right by the beach, so Gomamon had dived straight into the ocean and was happily playing with a bunch of kids and a few other Digimon. Palmon had taken the chance to relax under the shade of a palm tree and seemed quite content to just be out of the direct heat of the sun.

She squeezed Joe’s hand gently and when he squeezed back, she smiled and laid her head on his shoulder. Joe turned and gave her a gentle kiss on the head before resting his own head on hers. Her heart fluttered in her chest, as it often did at Joe’s affection and smiled. It seemed like Joe was really relaxing too so it finally felt like their vacation was working the way she had hoped.

*Bang*

Mimi gave a cry of surprise as a loud noise suddenly erupted around them, the ground shaking ever so slightly as it did.

“What was that!” exclaimed Joe, jumping up from his chair, startling the masseuse, who seemed unconcerned with the bang.

“It was just the volcano; it erupts sometimes and when it does it makes a loud noise,” explained the masseuse, waving his hand nonchalantly, aided when some of the kids who’d been playing with Gomamon ran past, exclaiming about how they were going to go and see it. “The volcano is on the other side of the island and the lava flow is very slow so there’s nothing to worry about. The only thing it stops are the tours to go and see the volcano.”

“N…No…” whispered Joe, slumping down into his seat and putting his head in his hands, “Why does this keep happening today?”

The masseuse gave Mimi and confused look and she smiled awkwardly before bending down in front of Joe and putting her hands on his knees, knowing immediately what was wrong. “Joe, Hun, I know you had everything planned out but you can’t blame yourself for volcanos erupting unexpectedly. It was thoughtful of you to want us to all go and do a volcano tour, especially after I mentioned it a few months ago. It means a lot to know you listen to me.”

“I had everything planned out,” he replied weakly, his voice mumbled from where his hands still covered his face.

“We can make new plans,” she replied, reaching her hands up to pull Joe’s away from his face, and forcing him to look her in the eyes. He needed to know that she wasn’t worried if things didn’t always go to plan.

Joe seemed to look her in the eyes for a moment before he nodded and quickly ripped one of his hands away from her to reach into his pocket and pull out his phone. “You’re right,” he replied as he tapped away on his phone, a new determined look in his eye, “I’ll find something even better for us to do.”

Mimi opened her mouth, ready to tell him that they didn’t need plans; they could just walk around and explore and discover things to do that way, but Joe had the glint in his eye that said he wouldn’t stop until he’d done what he thought he needed to do so she just gave his hand another squeeze before standing up and walking over to check on Palmon, who was now accompanied by Gomamon since his friends had all vanished to go and explore the lava.

“Hey Gomamon?”

He turned to her with his ever-lazy grin. “What’s up Mimi?”

“Do you know why Joe is getting more stressed than usual?” she asked, bending down so she could look the Digimon in the eye.

“Duh.” He replied with a roll of his eyes. Mimi might have been taken aback by the gesture but Gomamon had the ability to do it in a way that didn’t feel like he was making fun of you. “He wants to make everything perfect for you.”

“But I don’t need perfect Gomamon.” She ran a hand through her hair and grasped the ends in frustration, “I just want him to be happy.”

“He’s happiest when he’s able to give you everything.” Mimi frowned but knew that Gomamon was right. She knew Joe was happy when she was happy. But he didn’t seem to get that she couldn’t be happy if he wasn’t happy.

“I’ve got it!”

Mimi spun around to see Joe holding his phone triumphantly in the air, a smile finally back on his face, “I’ve found somewhere that’s perfect!”

Mimi smiled gently at him but knew that she would need to talk to him at some point. It was only a matter of time before he would get stressed that something wasn’t working out again.

\--

The mall that Joe had picked out really was the sort of place Mimi could happily while away hours looking for fancy outfits and sipping overpriced coffee. It had a garden theme to it with giant trees sprouting in the middle of the centre and ivy twisting around the rails and flowers everywhere so Palmon would like it. It even had a little fountain if Gomamon fancied a swim. Joe really had found the perfect place for them to spend their time.

It was just a shame that the entire place seemed to be wall to wall people. It was so packed that they could barely move without constantly being barged into and shoved out the way.

“Ouch, my foot!”

And the Digimon were getting stepped on because it was impossible to see anything in this crowd.

Mimi glanced over to Joe, ignoring the way she was being shoved left and right to see the glint that had been in Joe’s eye had been definitively extinguished. He looked frustrated instead, getting pushed around as simultaneously as she was.

She gave a sudden cry of alarm as she was pushed more forcefully than normal, her feet quickly sweeping out from under her at the strange angle she was forced into and she winced, ready to hit the ground. Within seconds though, strong arms reached out and grabbed her, quickly pulling her to safety. She opened her eyes to see that Joe had somehow managed to grab her and pull her safely into his chest. She glanced up, her eyes widening when she saw the intense anger in his eyes aimed at whoever had just shoved her. It made her heart skip a beat to see his normally calm demeanor ruffled by her wellbeing.

“Ow! That was my tail”

Joe gave a sigh and looked down at Mimi, his anger making way once more for resigned sadness; “Let’s get out of here.”

Mimi wanted to shake her head and say they were having a great time at the place he’d found for them. But instead she just nodded and allowed Joe to help her back into a standing position before he pulled her to his side and forged a path through the crowd to get to their Digimon. Sometimes she forgot just how much Joe could do when he put his mind to it and right now the crowd seemed to part around him. She felt her skin tingle where Joe’s hand rested gently but firmly on her side. Joe paused when he reached their partners and quickly scooped them both up in one arm, ignoring their startled cries before he gently pulled Mimi with him as he strode towards the exit, the crowd continuing to part for the man with a mission. She could feel the heat pinch her cheeks despite the air conditioning blasting inside the mall and suddenly felt the urge to drag Joe straight back to the hotel to show him exactly what she thought of him right now.

She didn’t though and they eventually ended up out of one of the side entrances to the mall, the crowd immediately disappearing now that they were back out in the sweltering heat of the midday sun. Mimi could practically hear Palmon start to wilt.

After a moment of silence, Gomamon suddenly excitedly piped up, “Hey, I can smell something good!”

“It’s not more fish is it?” asked Palmon wearily, drooping in Joe’s arms.

“No! I think it’s grilled chicken!” he exclaimed, wiggling excitedly before he pointed his fin forward and ordered Joe, “Onwards my noble steed!”

Joe sighed but it seemed after a day of things not going his way he didn’t have any fight left. And so, he released Mimi’s waist and gently took her hand instead before walking in the direction of Gomamon’s fin. Mimi looked sadly up at Joe’s face, wishing there was something she could do to get him to be his usual self. She would give anything for him to not be sad.

After walking down the street for a few minutes, Mimi spotted where Gomamon’s nose must have been leading them to; a giant tented market area. She could already see the chicken that Gomamon could smell sizzling on the grills.

“Ooh, let’s go! Let’s go!” exclaimed Gomamon, his eyes sparkling excitedly.

“Can we Mimi?” asked Palmon, “It looks cool…”

Mimi looked back over to Joe’s face and he glanced down to meet her gaze. His eyebrows raised when he realized she was asking his opinion on it and he gave a sad smile and replied, “Whatever will make you happy hun.”

She opened her mouth, ready to remind him that she wanted him to be happy too but she realized that that was the sort of conversation that was probably better to have without the Digimon around to interrupt.

“Yeah, let’s go,” she replied, squeezing Joe’s hand in support. He squeezed her hand in return before they both began to cross the road. Mimi let out a sigh of contentment when they walked into the market and felt the heat of the sun disappear from the top of their heads. She heard Palmon echo the sigh before Joe released the endlessly wiggling Gomamon out of his arms and Palmon jumped thankfully down too.

Both the Digimon ran ahead of them; Palmon immediately heading towards a stall of flowers and other plants whilst Gomamon zoomed in on a fish tank and immediately jumped in, much to the stall owner’s chagrin.

Mimi could sense Joe about to tell Gomamon off but before Joe could open his mouth, Mimi yelled out, “We’ll be back in a minute guys!” and began to tug Joe back out the cluster of tents and round the side into the shade of a palm tree she had spotted earlier.

“What’s going on?” asked Joe when Mimi finally stopped and turned to face him, his brows creased in confusion.

Mimi reached up and grabbed Joe’s face in her hands, squeezing his cheeks as she frowned at him, trying to work out how to start the conversation. Joe blinked, his confusion even more evident.

“So, are you going to explain to me why you’ve been getting so stressed today?” she asked, squeezing his cheeks an extra time for good measure before letting him go so he could speak.

Joe glanced away awkwardly and mumbled, “I’m no more stressed than normal when things go wrong…”

“That’s bullshit Joe!” she exclaimed, her frustration getting the better of her before she paused and took a deep breath, not wanting to argue with the man she loved. “What I mean is, I’ve known you since we were kids Joe, do you really think I can’t tell when you’re more stressed than usual?”

Joe’s eyes flickered nervously up to meet hers before he glanced away again and admitted, “I’m sorry Mimi; I just wanted everything to be perfect, just like you deserve.”

Mimi’s frown softened, glad to be getting somewhere and reminded him, “Joe, I don’t need perfect”

“But I want to give you perfect!” exclaimed Joe, finally meeting her gaze with an intensity in his eyes that caught Mimi off guard a bit, “You chose to be with me Mimi and I want to give you everything so you know you made the right choice.”

Mimi’s eyes widened at the words spilling from her boyfriend’s mouth.  Was this really what he was so worried about this whole time? She raised a hand up again and let her fingers glide across Joe’s cheek, not caring one moment about the beads of sweat now caught on her skin. She let her hand rest there and made sure Joe was meeting her gaze as she spoke again.

“Joe, I didn’t choose you because I wanted perfect.” She watched Joe flinch slightly, no doubt taking it as a negative thing but carried on. “I chose you because you make me feel things that nobody else has ever or will ever make me feel. I feel both safe with you and excited when I’m in your arms. I feel more understood by you than by anyone else in my life. You don’t judge me for being who I am; and you encourage me to be everything I can be. Joe, I love you; I can’t even imagine my life without you, so…you don’t need to be perfect…okay?

Joe’s eyes were wide, his jaw having dropped in a way that made it seem like Mimi had never stopped and told him exactly why she loved him. Maybe she hadn’t explained her side of it before…

“I just want you to be happy,” she added, her hand falling away from his cheek as she looked down at the sun dappled through the leaves at her feet.

“Mimi, I…” started Joe, sounding so serious that Mimi’s gaze jumped straight back up to him, “I love you too.”

Mimi felt her cheeks heat up once more, a smile jumping onto her face as it always did when Joe said those words, but Joe didn’t stop there and carried on, “I’ve loved you from the first moment I laid my eyes on you and only grew to love you when I realized what an amazing person you were. You’re always there to encourage me and make me better than I can be on my own. I’m not even sure who I’d be if you weren’t in my life…”

Joe paused and reached into his back pocket, pulling out a small box that looked like…

“Oh my god…” squeaked Mimi, suddenly understanding everything, as Joe bent down on one knee and opened the box to reveal a beautiful ring.

“Mimi Tachikawa, will you marry me?”

“I will! Of course, I will!” Mimi squealed, unable to believe that this was really happening as Joe took the ring out of the box and gently slid it onto her finger, kissing the back of her hand as he did so. The butterflies seemed to explode in her stomach and as soon as Joe stood up, she jumped into his arms, holding him as tight as she possibly could.

“I love you so much Joe!” she exclaimed, not knowing what to do with all the happiness that seemed to be exploding inside her, “I’ll make you the happiest man in the world!”

Joe gave a gentle laugh and rested his hand gently on her head, his fingers running through her hair, “Oh Mimi, you already have. I love you so much.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is the prompt I was most excited about when I first started writing and it's the one I've worked on the longest. I know it's not perfect (I ran out of time) but i'm relatively happy with how it turned out. I hope it wasn't obvious what Joe was going to do until he did it ;)  
> I kind of wrote this as a mix of how I think they'd be as a couple and my own ideal partnership.  
> Also, gotta love my digi pals; Gomamon and Palmon. They're always fun to write!


End file.
